How did you get into cooking? It's pretty much all I've ever done my whole life from the day I turned 16, when I could work. I'm really inspired by my grandma. She had a blueberry farm in Jackson, Tenn. I spent a lot of time with her. She cooked a lot. When I was able to work I knew what I wanted to do.

Briefly describe the cuisine at Moto: It's modern Italian, which is kind of broad. We're basically getting the best ingredients we can get around Nashville and cooking with Italian perspective. We have tons of ramps from East Tennessee, we'll have tons of tomatoes when they're in season. It's the best products I can get from Nashville. I'm not trying to copy exact dishes.

What is your favorite tool and ingredient at the moment? Definitely the pasta machine we got. It's a pasta extruder. It makes it so easy. It's one of the coolest machines I've ever seen in my life.

Ingredient? We get whole lamb necks, which are my favorite ingredient I've used in the past year. We braise the whole neck and serve it as an entree. It's a little fatty but it's so flavorful.

What is your favorite dish on the menu at the moment? Right now I really love the Sunburst Trout Crudo. It's the traditional Italian raw fish preparation we do with trout from the Appalachian mountains, and blood oranges, fennel and heirloom sesame seeds.

What is your biggest cooking philosophy? It just starts with being delicious. That's where a lot of the chefs miss the mark. They try to make things interesting or cool or beautiful and don't look first of all at just being delicious. Our biggest philosophy is if it's not delicious, we don't do it.

If you could cook for anyone who would it be and what would you cook? It would probably be my grandmother. I would do the blueberry lasagna. It was greatly inspired by her. We roast mushrooms and make a sauce — it looks like meat sauce. Then we layer ricotta and Parmesan. It's eight layers. Then we make a blueberry balsamic for on top. It's one of the most popular dishes.